LAST year on a Friday afternoon in October, a 15-year-old boy shot a police employee in the back of the head outside NSW Police headquarters.

Moments later, the boy himself, dressed in black clothing, lay on the ground, shot dead by special constables who responded to the commotion.

It wasn’t a prank. It was real-life terrorism.

For a week afterwards, I was reporting from the very spot on the street where it happened in Parramatta. You could tell the exact spot, because that section of pavement was cleaner than the others. A high pressure hose had scrubbed the ground clean. The blood and memories of what had happened, washed down a drain. The one reminder of the tragedy was a hole from a stray bullet which was left in a nearby rubbish bin.

I visit Police HQ from time-to-time and whenever I do, that bullet hole is a reminder of how terror can strike a suburban street in an instant.

The Jalal brothers dressed in white robes and pretended to be terrorists for a YouTube ‘prank’.Source:Facebook

If you’d witnessed it and you weren’t in on the so-called joke, it looked like a drive-by shooting conducted by three terrorists.

That certainly seemed to be the reaction of people caught in the stunt, who ran for their lives. One was a little girl.

But aged 16, 18 and 20, at least two of these boys are, in fact, men. One might ask, where are their parents, but at their age, two-thirds of the trio are adults, old enough to be held accountable for their decisions.

After the shooting in Parramatta, every police officer in New South Wales is required to carry their firearm in public wherever they go. A detective won’t even pop out for a coffee without bringing a holstered gun with them. The situation has never been more tense; the risk, never more real.

Australia’s current terrorism threat level is “probable”. The official government advice is that “the most likely form for a terrorist attack in Australia would be an attack by an individual or a small group of like-minded individuals”.

“It is highly likely that a terrorist attack in Australia would use weapons and tactics that are low-cost and relatively simple, including basic weapons, explosives and/or firearms.”

In other words, the most likely way that you or I will be a victim of terrorism, is to be shot on the street. This is the exact situation that the Jalal brothers were simulating.

It’s only good fortune that a victim of the prank wasn’t hit by oncoming traffic as they ran for their lives.

For those involved, the pranks would have felt terrifyingly real.Source:Supplied

And it’s only good fortune for the Jalal brothers that a well-intentioned police officer didn’t happen upon their prank and, in the confusion, fire shots to disarm the perceived situation.

Recording videos of a simulated terrorist attack isn’t clever. If there is a deeper satirical point being made, the Jalal brothers have been unable to articulate it.

If you make a joke at an airport check-in counter, or on board a plane, you’ll get arrested. In this day-and-age, jokes are taken seriously, for very good reason.

It’s important that the Jalals learn a lesson from their misplaced joke. There’s nothing funny about a bullet hole. Or a high pressure hose being needed to wash down a pavement.

Chris Urquhart is a reporter for Channel 9’s Today show. Follow him on Twitter @chrisurquhart